Poikovsky, Round 3: Wins for Gelfand, Fedoseev, and New Co-Leader Jakovenko

Ian Nepomniachtchi failed to win for the first time in the tournament, but that's a somewhat artificial way of putting it, as he was surely satisfied with an easy draw with Black against Gujrathi Vidit. He's now at 2.5/3, as is Dmitry Jakovenko, who won with Black against Emil Sutovsky. Sutovsky's 27.Ref2 allowed his kingside to be weakened after 27...Bxg2+, and once Jakovenko played 34...h3 defeat was inevitable though not immediate.

Vidit, with 2 points, is tied for 3rd-4th with Anton Korobov. Korobov was winning at one point against Vladislav Kovalev, though not trivially. Had he played 29.d6 he would have had very good chances to join the tie for first, but after trading queens a whole series of exchanges soon followed, and the value of White's extra pawn was negated by the opposite-colored bishops.

In the next score group, at 1.5/3, are two players who won to get back to 50%. Boris Gelfand won a very good positional game against Vladislav Artemiev, while Vladimir Fedoseev won speedily against Victor Bologan when the latter was unable to cope with White's kingside attack. (17...Nc6! 18.hxg6 Nd4! would have kept the game alive; after 17...Qf6 18.Rd2 Black was already lost.)

In round 4 the 2.5s battle the 2s: the leading pairings are Nepomniachtchi vs. Korobov and Jakovenko vs. Vidit.